In each blog, join our Optimistic Teacher as she relives life in the classroom…

Oh cursed alarm. It’s so disgustingly upbeat for 6am! I imagine this is because, unlike everyone else, it now has nothing to do for the next 24 hours. It can while away the time plotting how to go off unexpectedly in a quiet waiting room or perhaps disrupt a weekend lie-in.

Without much ado, however, I’m downstairs – showered, dressed, breakfasted and ready to haul two very full canvas bags full of books and random pieces of paper to my car. These bags do a lot of travelling, sometimes without anything else going in or out of them.

In fact, if there were some kind of reward scheme based on distance travelled, these bags have probably racked up enough air miles to get to New Zealand.

Right.

Off to the car.

Hmm…

Have to do a bit of shuffling about here.

My boot seems to be full of actual rubbish, however, it is rubbish I cannot seem to throw away. Cardboard boxes, plastic cotton reels and random pieces of plastic packaging may seem like useless objects but in the primary classroom, they could be transformed into literally anything, so they may just have to stay where they are for now until I find somewhere at home or at school to stash them until needed.

I’ve reached the gate just after 7am. It’s still pretty dark and the site manager hasn’t unlocked the gate yet so I’ll just need to sit here for a few minutes and try and prioritise my mental to-do list for the day. I’m resisting the urge for a 2 minute nap while I sit here…

The site manager knocks on my car window and jolts me awake. He’s grinning good-naturedly so I thank him and head into the car park.

The dreaded bags need to accompany me to my classroom, down two long corridors and up a flight of stairs before being unceremoniously dumped on the blu-tac spotted carpet. There are still a few grubby paint palettes and water pots waiting to be cleaned in the sink, but they will have to be patient.

I have bigger fish to fry.

After booting up my laptop, I bring up the sheets and templates I was working on last night and send them to the printer. Seems easy enough, however, what you may not know is that printer/photocopiers in schools are sadistic evil beings whose only purpose in life is to torture stressed, sleep-deprived teachers at exactly the moments they know it will hurt them the most.

But I won’t dwell on this for the moment. I won’t.

Today is a new day and by some miracle, technology may actually work as expected today.

Stranger things have happened.

I’m sure they have.

A quick assessment of the pencil pots on the tables tells me that unless three-quarters of my class is off school today, we will not have enough writing implements so off I go to investigate what my options are.

One of the advantages of being one of the first in school in the morning is the peace and quiet. There’s a tranquil stillness that is completely lost later in the day and it’s quite soothing to look around at all of the places that are usually filled with a buzz of activity.

Another advantage is that I can sneak into other classrooms and ‘redistribute’ classroom resources, i.e. nick their pencils and whiteboard pens. 1-0 to OT!

Although this is shocking behaviour, I should mention that I try not to take more than three from each class and always make sure that they still have enough for all of their children.

What..? I do!

Back in my classroom after my little thieving spree, I get the children’s books out and do a quick check to see who may need more support in the first lesson. Ah, it’s going to be a slightly short one today as we’ve got assembly.

Wait. Whose assembly?

Surely not…

Ah, of course.

My assembly.

Right. Come on Google, inspire me!